A movie about the nature of genius, passion, friendship, mental illness—and acceptance.
Having missed seeing The Soloist when it was in the theater, I was happy to finally get it on Netflix. And I wasn’t disappointed. The Soloist is the true story of Steve Lopez, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, and Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless musician with schizophrenia who had dropped out of the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. Lopez (played by Robert Downey, Jr., an actor I love) was looking for a story line for his regular column and happened on Ayers (played by Jamie Foxx—he learned how to play the cello for this movie), who was sitting by a statue of Beethoven in a Los Angeles park, playing a violin with only two strings.
Lopez strikes up a conversation, and Ayers tells him that he studied at Juilliard. Ayers was also obviously paranoid and having delusions. This prompts Lopez to contact Ayers’ sister back East, who isn’t sure whether or not her brother is still alive. Fascinated, Lopez found out that he had indeed gone to Juilliard, but had dropped out. Lopez begins a friendship with Ayers that, at first, involves trying to help him by getting him a cello, an apartment, and also taking him to some rehearsals of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra.
Throughout the movie, the most striking feature is Ayer’s passion for music, especially Beethoven. The other striking feature is the fact that, despite all his well-intentioned help, Lopez is unable to “cure” schizophrenia. I won’t tell you how this story ends. But do yourself a favor: Watch the special features on the DVD after viewing the movie. There you will see the real Steve Lopez and the real Nathaniel Ayers and their interaction. This was most inspiring.
The other thing that was truly uplifting is that the director and producer of this movie made sure they used homeless people as extras. This made the movie as realistic as possible, while also doing something that was uplifting to the homeless community. In the end, this movie is about the nature of genius, passion, friendship, mental illness—and acceptance.
P.S. A word about schizophrenia. Dr. Abram Hoffer, one of the founding fathers of orthomolecular psychiatry and recipient of the 14th Linus Pauling Functional Medicine Award, recently died at the age of 91. I met Dr. Hoffer back in the 1980’s when he gave a lecture to the doctors at the annual meeting of the American Holistic Medical Association. Dr. Hoffer reported on numerous cases of schizophrenia reversal with orthomolecular medicine. This is possible in the beginning stages of the disease, not after the disorder had been present for many years. (To learn about the treatment see Dr. Hoffer’s book, Orthomolecular Treatment for Schizophrenia by Keats Publications, available online.)
When you watch The Soloist, you can see how Ayer’s disease was present long before he entered Juilliard. And you can also see his extraordinary intelligence, which Hoffer said was common in those with schizophrenia. Watching the movie caused me to remember Hoffer—and also want to get the word out that some people can be helped in the early stages of the disease through nutritional means. This is a viewpoint that is definitely not supported by mainstream psychiatry, but I felt compelled to tell you about it!
